We are not makers of history. We are made by history.

—Martin Luther King Jr.

action history change fate

About Martin Luther King Jr.

Portrait of Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American civil rights activist and Baptist minister who was a prominent leader of the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968. He advanced civil rights in the United States through...

More quotations from Martin Luther King Jr.

Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.

—Martin Luther King Jr.

spirituality power science

Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. . . . Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

—Martin Luther King Jr.

war love hate violence hatred darkness

We who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive.

—Martin Luther King Jr.

civil disobedience nonviolence tension

People fail to get along because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don’t know each other; they don’t know each other because they have not communicated with each other.

—Martin Luther King Jr.

understanding empathy fear knowledge communication

In the final analysis, means and ends must cohere because the end is preexistent in the means, and, ultimately, destructive means cannot bring about constructive ends.

—Martin Luther King Jr.

war peace destruction

More quotations tagged with “fate”

Sometimes I remind myself that I almost skipped the party, that I almost went to a different college, that the whim of a minute could have changed everything and everyone. Our lives, so settled, so specific, are built on happenstance.

—Anna Quindlen in Every Last One

wonder fate whim happenstance

Fate has a way of getting what she wants, no matter how we try to avoid it.

—Kresley Cole in Pleasure of a Dark Prince

Life can be unfair and unkind, but sometimes we just have to let go and let fate take over.

—Lisa De Jong in Plastic Hearts

life kindness fate

Just because things hadn’t gone the way I had planned didn’t necessarily mean they had gone wrong.

—Ann Patchett in What Now?

Destiny has two ways of crushing us - by refusing our wishes and by fulfilling them.

—Henri Frederic Amiel

hope disappointment desire fate